GEN AND THE DEGENERATES UNLEASH ANTI-FUN PROPAGANDA

IN CONVERSATION WITH BANDS VOCALIST AND NAMESAKE ‘GEN’

Celebrating their debut album Anti-Fun Propaganda this week are Preston’s punks Gen and The Degenerates. But you won’t find the quartet out promoting their rebellious release with album launch parties and exclusive record store appearances. Instead, the compelling new band are currently on the other side of the globe, touring the length and breadth of the USA with legendary Celtic punk rockers, Flogging Molly. An opportunity that Gen and The Degenerates had no intention of turning down.

Before the band jetted off to the states, we caught up with band frontperson and vocalist, the lovely Gen (Genevieve Glynn-Reeves).

Ten accomplished tracks, each exemplifying the talent and diversity of the bands capabilities. Gen (She/They) explains how the band went from being tipped by likes of This Feeling as ‘ones to watch’ to generating a notorious live presence across the underground new music scene.

‘It was really fresh. So everybody is like your first album is easy because you use all the songs you’ve written up to that point, but that’s not us. I think because we hadn’t really decided what kind of band we wanted to be until we got to write the album. We were very lucky with Marshall that we got to try out lots of different kinda things. By the time you’re writing an album though you want it to consolidate a bunch of different things. It’s still pretty ecleptic – don’t get me wrong. But we wanted to make something a bit more cohesive but that was great because it gave us the chance to find our identity and to find out voice.‘

Leading in with the shoe-gazey post-punk single ‘Kids Wanna Dance’ before the dopamine inducing queer pop hopping anthem ‘Girls’; featuring Glasgow’s pop-rock quartet Uninvited.

“There was this sound which was trending on tiktok so it sort of came from there. So it was this girl saying, ‘I love it when girls do this or that‘ and I thought it was kinda funny. I asked people what kinda stuff – random stuff – that men have complained about you over and put them into lyrics because they are endearing to me. It was just this funny idea that why do men hate all these aspects of womanhood if they are supposed to be straight? Just kind of homoerotic to me, then I tweeted a line from the chorus and uninvited were like ‘same’, and I was like ‘this is actually a song, do you wanna be on the song?’ and they were like ‘yeah’, so that’s how it happened.“

Did you record it together?

“No! Actually, I don’t think we’ve ever met which is so weird. We’ve just followed each other and they went on tour with our friends Crawlers and when they were announcing the support there were people guessing it is as us. And yeah, it wasn’t us but it was Uninvited so we started following each other then. They actually just tracked their bit of the song and sent it over the our producer. But we’re like online friends.”

Title track ‘Anti-Fun Propaganda’ is where Gen’s satirical shine really kicks in before ‘That’s Enough Internet For Today’ seethes that New York post punk attitude which has without doubt influenced the fledging new band. On the latter, Gen says;

So Jay came in with that ‘do-me menacing’ riff. The boys were just like jamming it and I was in the corner on my phone, writing the lyrics laughing. I just went on one. I can’t take things seriously. Like I’m just not a sincere person and I need an immense amount of emotion for me to sound sincere (laughs).

‘Anti-Fun Propaganda’ is probably quite self explanatory, an attack on social and political agenda’s which are designed to suppress everyday habitual joy. On the reasoning behind using the track name for the album’s title, Gen explains “It was just that of all the tracks it was the one which captured the energy feel and attitude of the whole album.”.

‘All Figured Out’ marks the half way point with of the album and keeps the momentum travelling through into ‘Plan B (Interlude)’. With it’s pulsing percussion and impressive vocal delivery from Gen, ‘All Figured Out’ is probably one of the most cultivated tracks on the album. Full of cynical optimism and rose-tinted nostalgia, the track captures the momentum of a generation still trying to find their way in the world. ‘Plan B (Interlude)’ turns the volume down for a moment with a sweet acoustic moment, capturing the diversity that Gen and The Degenerates can and do pull off.

Straight back in with earlier single and live fan favourite ‘Famous’. “Famous is the oldest one, it’s been around for a couple of years” Gen tells me. It’s evident this track is been well rehearsed and has transformed from being a set list highlight to a well polished piece of bass driven sing-along anthem.

“I really like doing Post-Cool, which is a song where we all put sunglasses on because it’s funny. It’s a fun little moment.” Gen told us back in January before a homecoming show at Preston’s The Ferret. Probably a personal favourite on the album, ‘Post-Cool’ seizes the satirical attitude which makes Gen so fantastically endearing. Asking her about the motivation behind the track, she says “I don’t know, I just thought it would be funny.”

Gen comes across so whimsical in her replies, “I always feel there’s this group of just newly cool people. Like a lot of people in music and stuff were just never cool when they were younger and now they have to be cool. They’re like extra exclusive, an extra elitist because this is a new experience for them, so they want to exclude other people.” She continues, “Like, I’ve always been weird  and I was just friends with everyone so I’ve never really got that whole thing. I’m just a super friendly person and I could never do the aloof thing. I can’t do small talk, you get the same Gen and that Gen is not cool, she’s a little odd.” That Gen is definitely the one we are meeting and it’s that same Gen which is so flawlessly projected with the band.

You would be forgiven to perceive this band as nothing short of raucous; from the sonically driven guitars, scuzzy bass lines and smashing drum tracks all smoothly carrying Gen’s soaring main character energy. However, Anti-Fun Propaganda leaves us on a more poignant harmonious ballad. Coming in at over 6 minutes long, ‘Hey Jude’ is no.

An emotionally raw piece of songwriting, Gen proves that her songwriting – and vocals – are much more gifted than she would confidently admit. ‘Hey Jude’ is a piece of music written as a tribute to her late Aunt – Jude. “Yeah, that’s grief and anything less than grief then I’m not gonna take it seriously” Gen laughs.

Is that style of songwriting something that you would like to explore more of?

“Yeah, so I just write what I feel like writing. A lot of what I approach when songwriting is something I’m processing or that I’m trying to figure out. It’s just a way of exploring, understanding and processing that. It was just a chance to speak to my aunt again and being like, ‘this is what’s going on’.”

Ending on the melodic high of ‘Hey Jude’, this debut album leaves listeners with a sense of content – a satisfaction which reflects what Gen and The Degenerates do so well. It’s early days yet and despite currently being out of the country, we have a sneaky suspicion that Anti-Fun Propaganda will do very well on both sides of the Atlantic.

Listen to our full conversation with Gen from Gen and The Degenerates below

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